Typhoon Usagi has killed at least 25 people in Guangdong province of south China, the government has said.

Winds of up to 180 km/h (110 mph) were recorded in some areas, toppling trees and blowing cars off roads. Its victims drowned or were hit by debris.

The storm has affected 3.5 million people on the Chinese mainland.

Trains from Guangzhou to Beijing have been suspended and hundreds of flights from Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong have been cancelled.

However, Hong Kong has escaped the worst of the storm.

Weather officials say that the ferocity of the storm has abated as it progressed into southern China, but financial markets in Hong Kong were closed for part of Monday morning.

More than 80,000 people were moved to safety in Fujian province and the authorities have deployed at least 50,000 relief workers, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Power supplies in many parts of the province and in Guangdong have been cut off.

"It is the strongest typhoon I have ever encountered," Xinhua quoted Luo Hailing, a petrol station attendant in Shanwei - in the eastern part of Guangdong province - as saying. "[It was] so terrible, lucky we made preparations."

Image caption
Typhoon Usagi closed in on China on Sunday, after hitting parts of Taiwan and the Philippines.

'Chest-deep water'

Usagi - which means rabbit in Japanese - had produced winds of 165 km/h (103 mph) as it closed in on China's densely populated Pearl River Delta.

China's National Meteorological Centre warned that Usagi would bring gales and downpours to parts of the southern coast.

People living in southern China are used to typhoons, but Usagi hit the region with unusual force, the BBC's Celia Hatton in Beijing reports.

The storm hit just as millions were travelling for China's mid-Autumn festival - a national, three day holiday when many visit family - leading to flight and high speed train cancellations, our correspondent adds.

The storm crossed through the Luzon Strait between Taiwan and the Philippines on Friday.

Parts of the Philippines were badly hit by floods caused by the typhoon on Monday.

Officials said at least 18 people were killed in floods and landslides in the north western Philippines.